The Afterlife
by HeyMrsPotter
Summary: Fifteen years after it was dropped on the ground in the Forbidden Forest, the resurrection stone is found. When Teddy Lupin discovers its powers, he becomes lost in his own world with the parents he longs to know. Will he realise too late that the dead should stay dead?
1. Fidius Achates

The Hogwarts express rolled into the station and came to a slow stop. As with each of his previous four years at Hogwarts, Teddy Lupin was there at half past ten to see its arrival into platform nine and three quarters.

For each of his years at Hogwarts, he had travelled to the station on the first day of September with his grandmother and godfather. Harry always insisted that they arrive at the station half an hour early, ("Trust me, it is _not_ fun to be late and either jumping on the train at the last second or missing it entirely.") Teddy always liked to be one of the first onto the platform, and he liked how it went from being eerily quiet to completely manic within such a short amount of time.

No sooner had he finished appreciating the quiet, a steady stream of students began to filter in from the handful of walls that led to various muggle train stations up and down the country. As Harry loaded his trunk on to the train for him, Teddy saw lots of familiar faces greeting one another with hugs and squeals of delight; he saw nervous looking first years whom he swore were even smaller than the now second years were when he saw them exactly a year ago; he saw teary-eyed parents, and eye-rolling children reassuring them and promising to write.

"All set, Ted," Harry said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks Uncle Harry."

"You'll write to me if you need anything?" he asked, a frown wrinkling his forehead as it did every year.

"Even if I don't need anything," Teddy gave his usual reply before turning to his grandmother. "Bye, Gran, don't forget to feed my-"

"Your gillyfish, I know," she finished, smiling at him. I'll see you at Christmas, Teddy. Be good, do your homework, prepare for your OWLS."

"I know, I know. Uncle Harry already warned me about the workload this year. A lot."

Harry chortled. "Yeah well, I barely got through them _with_ Hermione. You don't have anyone to spend the year pestering you and buying ridiculous homework planners that yell at you."

Teddy laughed and rolled his eyes. He was spared from further lectures by an extremely loud yell that came from the opposite end of the platform.

"TEDDY REMUS LUPIN YOU BEAUTIFUL GREEN-NO RED-NO BLONDE HAIRED BOY! GET OVER HERE!"

He didn't even have to look up to know that the shout had come from his best friend. Maxim (" _Don't call me that shit-tastic name, it's Max for Christ sake,")_ Keller was one of Teddy's two Hufflepuff dorm friends, and easily the loudest person Teddy had ever met in his life. Teddy would often joke that he would get more peace and quiet in a room with every Weasley and Potter than alone with Max. He had gotten them kicked out of the library more times than Teddy could count.

"Hey, Max," Teddy grinned as Max jogged over to him, leaving his mum, dad, and younger brother to load his trunk onto the train (Max did _not_ travel lightly).

"Definitely blonde today then," Max said as a way of greeting Teddy. "Copying off me are you? That won't get you the girls you know."

Though he would never admit it Max was fiercely jealous of Teddy's Metamorphmagus. He frequently had his mother send him packages from home with varying muggle hair dye kits, having given up on trying to do it by magic when he accidentally turned himself bald, much to Teddy's amusement. Max ran his hand through his swept back golden blonde hair and cast a quick glance over his shoulder to see if a nearby group of sixth year Ravenclaws were watching. They weren't.

Max changed the subject. "Seen Giles anywhere?"

"Not yet. Shall we go find a compartment before they all fill up?"

Max nodded and quickly ran back to his family to say his farewells. Teddy allowed himself to be squeezed tightly by his Gran, and received another pat on the back from Harry. He stepped on to it with his backpack slung loosely over his shoulder, and his caged owl, Helga (a birthday gift from Harry and Ginny) in his hand.

The train was still relatively quiet; it wasn't due to leave for another ten minutes, so Teddy and Max found an empty compartment quickly. They were joined fairly soon after that by the third person from their dormitory, Giles Bell. Like Max, Giles was muggle-raised, though he was half-blood. Giles' wizard father had been absent from his life since he was a baby, though his mother had known he was a wizard and had always told Giles that he would go to Hogwarts at the age of eleven.

"Hello, fidius Achates!" he greeted as he plonked himself down in the seat next to Teddy.

"Fidius what now? Is that a spell or something?" Teddy asked.

"Fidius Achates," Giles repeated. "It means faithful friend _._ It's my- _"_

"Christ, are you still doing that word or phrase of the day shit?" Max interrupted with a groan. "I thought you would have grown out of that over the summer. Come on, we're OWL year students now."

"All the more reason to extend and improve my vocabularly," Giles quipped back. He leaned back in his seat, put his feet up on the empty chair next to Max, and put on a pair of black thick framed glasses he retrieved from his pocket. Giles eyesight had been described many times by professionals as perfect, much to his annoyance for he had a love of wearing glasses, and so he wore ones with fake lenses instead. He reached into his jacket once more and pulled out an all-too-familiar pocket dictionary, which he began flicking through.

"I have _not_ missed that thing." Max eyed the book with a frown. "So, anything new and exciting happen over the summer?"

"Absolutely nothing," Teddy said dully. "Spent most of it at Uncle Harry's as usual. James is so good at Quidditch now. The kid's nine and already kicking my arse at it."

"Well, we can't all be as amazingly talented on a broomstick as me," Giles said without looking up from his dictionary. He had been Hufflepuff's seeker for the last two years, and would easily secure his spot again this year.

"Thing is though, his mum's an international Quidditch player and his dad's Harry Potter so he was always going to be amazing, wasn't he?" Max said. "Did you see much of the lovely Victoire?"

Giles lowered his dictionary, grinning.

"Do we have to do this? Yes, I saw Victoire. No, I do not fancy Victoire. No, she does not fancy me. And no, we did not snog."

"Oh come off it, Ted," Giles said, closing his dictionary now that he was fully interested in the subject of conversation.

"She's totally fit, how could you not?"

"Yeah," Max agreed fervently. "I mean, I'm _gay_ and even I can appreciate those curves. She's part-veela, you have to fancy her. It's like the law of attraction or some bollocks like that."

"She's also just a friend," Teddy told them for what felt like the hundredth time in the last six months, "I've known her forever. She's a good friend, that's all."

Max and Giles threw each other a glance that quite plainly said _yeah right_ , though thankfully neither of them pursued the subject.

When the snack trolley came around soon after, the three boys eagerly shoved their coins at the old witch and grabbed several handfuls of sweets and pastries each, piling them all on to the empty seat before digging in.

The rest of the journey to Hogwarts passed most uneventfully. Along the way, the three boys filled themselves with too many sugary snacks that left them longing for the savoury delights of the start of term feasts, a few of their classmates popped their heads in to exchange _hellos_ and _how were your summers_. As the day grey darker out of the windows, they changed into their school robes.

When the train slowed to a stop in Hogsmeade station, there was the usual rush of movement and pushing to get out into the crisp autumn air and a little closer to the delicious Hogwarts feast. Max loudly voiced his frustration at being pushed around, yelling at some terrified looking first-years (who weren't actually to blame for it) that pushing him wouldn't make the feast start any quicker.

For the second time that day, Teddy heard a loud voice yelling his name. This time, it was Hagrid. Not wanting to shout all the way from the train to the dock where the boats for the first-years were waiting, Teddy flashed him a large grin and waved.

The three boys made their way among the crowd over to the carriages. It still fascinated Teddy that they didn't simply move on their own as it looked, and even though he had seen pictures of thestrals, he still couldn't actually picture them standing there waiting for their carriage to be filled so it could pull it towards the great castle in the near distance.

"You know, I think you made one of those first years cry…" Giles said, peering over his shoulder towards the boats as he clambered into a carriage.

"I stand by my actions. A galleon says that one doesn't get sorted into Gryffindor."

Teddy laughed. "I'm not taking that bet, there's no way he's a Gryffindor."

"I'll take it," Giles said confidently and outstretched his hand for Max to shake.

There was a buzz of excitement in the air when they finally entered the castle and made their way to the long Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall. Many of the students were already sat on the benches, chattering animatedly to one another as they awaited the first years.

Teddy sat down in the middle of Max and Giles and looked up at the staff table as he waited for the remainder of the students taking their seats. The sorting hat was perfectly still on its stool in front of the table. Professor McGonagall sat in the headmistresses chair in the centre, the seat to her left was empty; it belonged to the deputy headmistress Professor Sprout, whom Teddy knew would be waiting in the entrance hall now for Hagrid and the new students. Professor Longbottom was directly on McGonagall's left, looking terrified as he was talked at by a formidable man Teddy didn't recognise. He was completely bald, and even though Teddy was sat a little way away from him, he could see several veins running across the top of the man's head, he was also sporting the largest pair of ears Teddy had ever seen. He snorted loudly and then nodded in the direction of the mystery professor when his friends looked at him questioningly. They both began to stifle laughs behind their hands.

To their relief, a distraction came moments later in the form of the Headmistress standing up. A silence fell over the hall without her needing to say a single word. She sat down again and the hall doors swung open with a loud creak, and Professor Sprout walked briskly in, followed by a tight huddle that consisted of the first years.

She took her place by the Sorting Hat, and as always, Teddy was amused by how closely the pair were matched in their patched and frayed appearance. The hat opened its brim widely and began to recite its poem for that year:

 _Welcome back to Hogwarts,  
It's the start of a new year.  
Let me meet you, brand new faces,  
And I'll sort you fair and square.  
It's time for me to separate,  
Your bright and fresh young minds.  
So sit just here and put me on,  
Let us see what this hat finds.  
Will you go to Gryffindor?  
Where the brave of heart belong.  
Or will I call out Ravenclaw,  
Whose intellect is strong?  
You could be a true Hufflepuff,  
A trusty and kind friend.  
Or will it be to Slytherin,  
Their ambition knows no end.  
For a hat, I'm awfully wise,  
I don't sit on the fence.  
I know which house you belong to,  
So let the sorting commence!_

Once it had finished, Professor Sprout explained the process (much to the relief of some of the new students who were obviously expecting a lot worse) she took out a roll of parchment and read the first name.

"Adams, Emily?"

A plump red-faced girl stumbled forwards and placed the hat on her head with shaking hands. It deliberated for a moment and then yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Teddy cheered loudly along with the rest of his house and watched the girl take a seat a few people up from him.

Samson Bulmer was next to be sorted and practically ran to the Gryffindor table beaming. Liza Beaumont became the first Ravenclaw and then-

"Fitchley, Fraser?"

"Ooh, this is our boy!" said Max, sitting up so he could get a better view of the sandy-haired boy that he had made cry. "Get ready to pay up, Giles."

Fraser sat down on the tiny stool, the hat barely touched a hair on his head and-

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"YOU ARE JOKING ME!" Max yelled, and could be heard even over the cheers that had erupted from one table over. He whipped his head around to look at Giles. "You cheated."

"How could I have possibly cheated? Do you think I quickly bribed the sorting hat without you noticing?"

"Obviously not, but there's no way you would have guessed he was going to be a Gryff based on that five seconds you saw him and he cried. How did you know?"

"Okay, fine, you got me. I saw him at nine and three quarters this morning with Elaina Fitchley, it's her little brother."

"Who's Elaina Fitchley?" Teddy asked.

"Gryffindor prefect. She took points off me last year when I basically hadn't done anything and when I argued with her she gave me this full rant about her being a Hogwarts legend and all of her family had been Head Boy or Head girl and every single one of them was a Gryffindor. She's vile. Anyway I saw her this morning basically lecturing her brother not to let her or the family down and to live up to their reputation and all the rest of it. If her whole family was in Gryffindor, it's pretty likely he would have been too. So, one galleon was it?"

He stretched out his hand and grinned widely as Max dug into his pocket for a large gold coin and placed it in his palm.

Teddy returned his attention to the sorting, from Freemont, Liza all the way down to the name he had forgotten would be on the list of new students this year.

"Weasley, Louis?"

The last boy to be sorted had the trademark Weasley-Delacour platinum hair that seemed to be a source of light. He gave a huge grin to his sisters, Victoire and Dominique, who waved back from their seats at the Gryffindor table. He sat on the rickety stool and the hat was on his head for less than five seconds when it also placed him in Gryffindor. Louis practically skipped over and sat next to Victoire who greeted him with a hug.

There was the usual start of term announcements from McGonagall about not being permitted to enter the Forbidden Forest unless instructed, and making sure to read Flich's ever growing list of banned items that would be posted on common room notice boards. She then introduced the large-eared teacher as Professor Savage, who gave a curt nod of his head at the small scattering of applause. Teddy was please when Professor McGonagall finally announced the start of the feast.

The plates in front of them were filled with all of Teddy's favourites; crispy sausages, lamb and pork chops, every type of cooked potato known to man, gravy, pies, and somethings. Up and down the house tables, students were piling their plates high with more food than they had probably eaten in the entire summer.

The dinner was replaced with desert and Teddy helped himself to a ridiculously large helping of treacle sponge and custard, and thought fondly of his Uncle Harry who always told him it was the sticky sweet cake he missed the most of all the food the Hogwarts house elves had to offer.

It was with great difficulty that Teddy heaved himself off the bench when they were dismissed from the feast shortly after. He was always thankful that Hufflepuff's was the shortest walk from the Hall to their common room and dormitories.

They shuffled slowly along the corridor that held the large painting of a fruit bowl that would gain access to the kitchen, and tucked themselves into the nook that contained a stack of barrels.

Teddy stepped forward, took out his wand, and tapped out the rhythm of _Helga Hufflepuff_ on the correct barrel. Its lid swung open, allowing Teddy to crawl through. He got to his feet and welcomed the sight of the familiar common room.

He had no idea what the other three common rooms looked like but he could safely bet none were as homely as this one. The circular room, with its low ceiling and constant feel of warmth that you only ever got on the back of your neck on a British summer day, felt like a huge hug. The walls and floor had an earthy feel, which was emphasised by the various plants that were dotted around the room care of their head of house. Teddy's favourites were the one that would join in with you if you sang a song to it, and another which swayed gently in an almost hypnotic way. Three quarters of the way around the room, just under the ceiling on the walls, were a series of round windows. Each of them showed the same view: long blades of grass dotted with dandelions, giving the room a further underground feel. The only part of the walls that had no windows was the patch directly above the gigantic fireplace, for it held a huge rectangular framed picture of their house founder. The paining of Helga Hufflepuff was awake, and greeting the students with a friendly wave.

Teddy was incredibly tempted just to plonk himself down for a rest in one of the squashy yellow armchairs that sat in front of the crackling fire, rather than dragging his very full self up the stairs to bed, but he knew if he sat down he would have fallen asleep in seconds. Instead, he waited for Giles and Max to come through the tunnel into the room, and then headed up the boys' staircase with them.

When they arrived at their dormitory, their trunks were already set at the foot of their beds waiting for them. There were only three beds in the room, all identical four posters made up with yellow and black bedding and matching hangings around the frame. Uncle Harry had told Teddy that he had shared his Hogwarts dormitory with four other boys, which was the average number of boys in each house, so when Teddy had started Hogwarts he had been confused as to why their number was so small. Harry had explained that the Hogwarts numbers for Teddy's year and the one after were bound to be small because not many witches and wizards had had children in the midst of the war. Sure enough, Teddy's entire year group consisted of only twenty one students.

Teddy was pleased when he finally pulled on his pyjamas and crawled into bed under the duvet. He, Max, and Giles managed to all mumble a sleepy _goodnight_ to each other before their soft snores filled the room. 


	2. Gelastic

The morning seemed to come around mere seconds after Teddy had closed his eyes, and it was with great difficulty that he pulled himself out of bed the next morning. He crossed the room to the mirror and raised his eyebrows at his mop of blonde hair, which was a tangled mess from sleeping. He closed his eyes, screwed his face up, and then opened them again. Happy with his new, shorter, brunette hair, Teddy got dressed in his uniform and robes. Max and Giles were just stirring when he emerged from the bathroom, so he told them he would meet them down there, and headed to breakfast, somehow feeling very hungry despite how much he had eaten the night before.

The smell of fried eggs, bacon, and toast hung heavily in the air as soon as they crawled out of the barrel into the kitchen corridor. Teddy inhaled deeply and quickened his pace.

On his way to the Hufflepuff table, Teddy passed by Victoire, who was chatting happily with a group of friends.

"Hi, Ted!" she said as soon as she spotted him. "Looking forward to the first day of classes?"

"As long as I don't have Transfiguration," he groaned. There was an irony in the fact it was the subject he struggled most with, something that Professor McGonagall reminded him of on a regular basis. He looked forward to the end of the year when he would be able to drop the subject.

Victoire chuckled. "You mean it's _not_ your favourite subject?" she mocked.

Teddy nudged her playfully with his hip. "See you in a bit, yeah?"

She spun back around on the bench she was sitting on and resumed her conversation with her friends. Teddy took his own seat at the Hufflepuff table and began loading his plate with sausages, eggs, and beans. He was just buttering a slice of toast when he was joined by Giles and Max, the latter of which was yawning.

"Why do they insist on starting classes so early in the morning?" he huffed as he sat down.

"Because if they started classes when you wanted them to we'd all be up until midnight," Teddy replied with a mouthful of breakfast.

"Still. Eight in the morning is a stupid time of day."

"Someone's full of the mulligrubs this morning," Giles quipped. Max rounded on him, frustration evident on his face.

"It means grumpy or low spirited," Teddy answered before Max could ask.

"I'm impressed, Teddy. Are my excellent linguistic skills rubbing off on you?" Giles asked.

"Nope. You used that one in third year."

"Bollocks. I need a different word for today then. I'll get back to you." And with that, he pulled out his trusty pocket dictionary.

Teddy was on his second helping of toast when Professor Sprout came around with their timetables, he was relieved to see that the day's lessons did not include transfiguration. "Double potions, History of Magic, free period, Charms. Not a bad day really."

They left shortly after and made their way down to the dungeons, wondering which potions fifth year would bring to them. Their potions teacher, Professor Pinkton was waiting for them when they arrived. New to the staff last year, Professor Pinkton was the youngest of the faculty, Teddy guessed she was only in her mid-twenties. She was a stout woman, with dark brown hair in a pixie cut that made her face look rounder than it already was. She was extremely well liked by the students due to her fun and friendly nature. Her youth brought a fresh enthusiasm to the school that had rarely been seen.

"Alright, folks," Pinkton said as she did at the beginning of all of their lessons. "We're starting on a bit of a serious note today."

The class exchanged nervous glances; that was not a sentence they had heard from her before. Usually she began the lessons with some sort of banter, often a potions related joke which were always extremely cheesy but her deliverance made them laugh nonetheless.

"I know this is the first lesson on the first day back but we really do need to get the OWL talk out of the way."

The class let out a collective groan. A Slytherin boy put his head in his hands.

"I know, I know," Pinkton said apologetically. "Business as usual as soon as I'm done, I promise."

She flicked her wand at the blackboard and the word OWLs appeared, chalked in bright green bubble writing. As she spoke, she kept aiming her wand at the board and the key points from her lecture appeared around the edges. She gave them a brief description of the potions they would cover that year, and the ones they were likely to be asked to brew in their practical exam. She talked through vital chapters in the books from their list that they must read, and homework tasks she would have them do throughout the year to help prepare.

Teddy's quill whipped back and forth across the page as he listened, copying down all of the Professor's key notes as well as some of his own. Potions was a subject he desperately wanted to take on to NEWT level, and as fun as she was, Pinkton accepted nothing less than an Outstanding owl for her NEWT students.

"Okay," she finished, clapping her hands together. "I think after all that we could do with something a bit more light hearted. Giggling potions!"

With a final flick of her wand, her OWL notes disappeared from the board and they were replaced by a set of ingredients and a method in the same loopy handwriting, this time in purple chalk. There was a scraping of chairs and a scrambling of students making their way to the store cupboard in the corner of the room.

Teddy was working with Talinda Ermstone, a fellow Hufflepuff. She was as good at potions as he was and so they made a good team. Teddy gathered their ingredients and by the time he returned, Talinda had already set up her cauldron and had the water inside bubbling nicely. They shared the ingredients between them that needed to be chopped or shredded or prepared in one way or another and set to work. They talked as they worked about the new information Professor Pinkton had given them about their upcoming exams, stopping only to concentrate when measuring out or adding ingredients to the cauldron. Professor Pinkton stopped by and complimented them on the perfect shade of Orange their potion was, leaving the two students beaming.

Two hours after the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had entered the classroom in the dungeons, dragging their feet into the first class of the school year, they left with an entirely different demeanor. Max was practically hanging from Giles' shoulder, the pair of them laughing hysterically (Pinkton said that they had added too much crushed beetle eyes to their potion and it should wear off by the time they arrived at their next class) Teddy and Talinda, whose potion had received top marks, chortled at them as they walked behind, though Teddy couldn't know for sure if this was a result of their potion or the actual hilarity of the situation.

Talinda waved bye to Teddy at the top of the stairs as she headed off to ancient runes up one marble staircase, and Teddy went up another to History of Magic. He walked alongside his still laughing friends, not bothering to even attempt conversation with them. By the time they arrived in the classroom and took their seats, Giles and Max had calmed down considerably, though Max's bout of laughter had left him with the hiccups, much to his frustration.

As always with Professort Binns lessons, most of the hour was entirely boring and uneventful, with the small exception of Giles letting out an extremely loud, short burst of laughter mid-way through Binn's droning on about a goblin rebellion (he didn't notice or stop.) Giles, very red in the face, quickly tore a spare bit of parchment in half, scribbled on both pieces and handed one to Teddy and one to Max.

 _NEW WORD OF THE DAY-'GELASTIC' (it means of, like, or pertaining to or provoking laughter) As in, 'The potion Max and I made, was embarrassingly gelastic)_

After lunch, Teddy, Max and Giles made their way to Charms class, eager to see what the new Professor would be like. They seated themselves in the middle of the class and took out their wands, parchment, quill and ink bottles as the other Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws filtered in.

Professor Savage walked briskly into the classroom, closing the door behind him with a flick of his wand over his shoulder. A few of the students raised an eyebrow.

"Your OWL exams will be taking place exactly ten months from today. You are not prepared," he said curtly. "I have looked at your end results from last year and they are mostly abysmal. I see a few promising scores, I'm pleased to say they were from students of my own former Hogwarts house."

His mouth formed into what Teddy assumed was a smile, but looked more like the man was in pain, as he cast his eyes over the Ravenclaw students.

"I accept nothing less than Exceeds Expectations from all homework and practical assessments we will do between now and your exams. Anything less than that will have to be repeated. If you wish to continue with Charms for your NEWTs, which I assume most of you will as it is a vital subject for most magical career paths, then you will need to get an Outstanding in your OWLs. I do not accept failures."

As Professor Pinkton had, he then turned to the blackboard to display a series of bullet points he obviously intended to talk through. Max turned to Teddy and Giles while Savage's back was turned.

"I could use something gelastic right about now, this bloke is a total killjoy!" he whispered.

"Five points from Hufflepuff. You will soon learn that my hearing is exemplary, Mr Kellar."

 _'_ _I'm not surprised with ears like those.'_ Teddy thought bitterly. He disliked the new Professor already.

He talked at the group for another fifteen minutes about his plans for the year, the workload, the importance of revision, and continually emphasised his Exceeds Expectations policy. Finally, he set them their task for the lesson.

"We're going to be working on Concealment Charms today. I don't expect any of you to master these by the end of the lesson, but the three foot of parchment on the different incantations for concealment charms should help familiarise you so that we are successful in them by the end of the next lesson."

He made his way into the store cupboard to retrieve the teacups they would be attempting to conceal. As soon as Teddy could no longer see him, he screwed his eyes up and felt the familiar tugging sensation of his features changing. He opened his eyes and turned to his friends.

"Hey, guys, guess who I am?"

At first sight of him, Giles and Max began laughing harder than they had under the influence of the giggling potions. Teddy had transfigured his ears to resemble enlarged versions of Professor Savage's already huge ears.

"My hearing is exemplary!" he managed to say between laughs.

"DETENTION LUPIN!" A furious yell came from behind Teddy and he immediately changed his ears back to the way they had been. He turned around very sheepishly to see Professor Savage was red faced and spluttering with anger. "Leave my classroom now, you disrespectful boy. You may return at the end of today with an apology, and you had better catch up on your concealment charms somehow before the next lesson."

"But, Sir, I-" Teddy began.

"OUT!"

Teddy knew better than to try and argue with a man so red in the face. He had only seen anger like this once before, when little Rose Weasley had drawn all over her fathers' limited edition, gifted to him from the designers, Firebolt X100, with her new crayons.

He quickly returned to his desk, stuffed his belongings back into them and dashed out of the room. He could hear Professor Savage mumbling furiously to himself as he walked by the teacher's desk at the front of the room. "How dare you…never been so insulted…perfectly normal size thank you very much."


	3. Slubberdegullions

Teddy made his way quickly back to the common room; he did not want to bump into any Professors in the corridor and be forced to explain why he wasn't in class. He plonked himself down into one of the squashy arm chairs in front of the fire and let out a long sigh. The room was deserted, all of the other Hufflepuffs were in class. The room felt odd when it was completely empty, it lacked a warmth that he suspected didn't have anything to do with the fire not being lit by the house elves yet.

He sat for a few minutes longer and then became frustrated with him boredom. He decided he would take the opportunity to write to Harry and his Grandmother. He walked over to the desks at the other side of the room, dumped his bag on the chair next to him and retrieved his parchment, quill and ink from it. He wrote:

 _Dear Uncle Harry,_

 _I'm just writing to let you know I've settled back in to school okay. We got new timetables this morning and there seems to be a lot of free periods, though from the OWL lectures we've been given so far I'm guessing they won't be as free as I first thought. There's a new Professor for Charms who I've already gotten on the wrong side of so I think I'm going to have to work pretty hard to keep my marks up in his class. I haven't seen Hagrid properly yet but I'm sure he'll be inviting me around for tea any day now, I'll tell him you say hi. Anyway, I hope you're okay. Speak soon,_

 _Teddy._

After writing a similar letter to his grandmother, Teddy jogged up the stairs to his dormitory, which looked significantly tidier than it had when he left it that morning thanks to the house elves, grabbed two envelopes from his trunk, and then returned to the still empty common room. A glance out the window told him that lessons were finishing; he could see the ankles and shoes of the students who had just finished their Herbology lessons shuffling past.

He pocketed his letters and crawled back out of the Common Room. Just as he reached the fruit bowl portrait that led to the kitchens, Teddy bumped into Giles and Max.

"Ted! Tough break with Professor Savage Beast! Like my new nickname for him by the way?" Max looked pleased with himself.

"Suits him perfectly," Teddy replied a little more bitterly than intended.

"Bit shit giving you detention the first day back," Giles added unhelpfully.

"Yeah…a bit," Teddy mumbled. "Anyway, I'm going to send a couple of letters off at the Owlery, I'll catch up with you in a bit."

He left his friends looking a touch confused and the further he walked from them, the more frustrated he grew with himself. In his time at Hogwarts, he had only ever had one other detention, for being caught out of bed after hours (okay, a lot after hours-he and Max had been sneaking out of the kitchen with a handful of treats at three in the morning and walked straight into Filch, dropping chocolate eclairs on Mrs Norris). He prided himself on getting up to mischief with his friends in a way that just stretched the school rules without over stepping the mark or being caught out. And he really did care about getting good marks in his OWL exams, though he was still undecided where he wanted to take his career after Hogwarts, he knew that good exam results opened a lot of doors.

Promising himself he would apologise to his friends as soon as he returned from sending his letters, Teddy quickened his pace to the Owlery. The cold air of autumn hit him as soon as he stepped outside of the warm castle. There was a bitter chill in the wind and Teddy was only dressed in his thin school robes. He tightened them around his body when it started to rain, and sped up even more.

He was thankful to reach the shelter of the Owlery, which did nothing for protecting him from the wind due to its many windows, but at least kept him from the rain. He spotted Helga on one of the lower perches opposite the door and whistled to gain her attention. She flew straight to the nearest perch to him, and gave his finger a happy nip when he reached out to stroke the feathers on her chest.

He tied both of the letters to her outstretched leg. "Take these to my Gran and Uncle Harry please."

With one final nip of his finger, she was gone. Wanting to get back to his friends quickly, Teddy did not linger to watch her fly into the distance. He ran back across the grounds and was happy to get back into the castle and the warmth it provided. He pulled his wand out of his robes and cast a drying spell over himself before walking briskly back to the Common Room.

He found Max and Giles in their dormitory, after scanning the Common Room and not seeing them there. They had changed out of their school uniforms and into jeans and jumpers.

"Look, I'm sorry about before. I was annoyed at myself for getting caught."

Giles gave a wave of his hand. "It's cool, Ted. We're pissed off too."

Max added quietly, "It was pretty funny though…"

Teddy couldn't help himself, he grinned.

* * *

Breakfast the next morning brought with it a letter from Professor Savage with details of his detention that would take place that evening, along with a note that Teddy had been expecting. It said, in an untidy scrawl:

 _Dear Teddy,_

 _I hope your first day back went alright. I see you've gone and got yourself a detention already. Lucky for you I needed a hand with something in the Forest. Your detention starts at 9pm but if you wanted to come round for a cuppa and a bite to eat before that I'll be in._

 _Hagrid._

Teddy grinned widely. His detention with Hagrid wouldn't feel like a detention at all. He loved going into the forest, and loved it even more when he actually had permission to and he didn't have to worry about being caught.

"What on earth are you grinning about at such an ungodly hour?" Max asked him.

Teddy handed him the note wordlessly.

"Lucky git," Max spat at him. "The last detention I got was with Filch, I had to clean the showers in the Quidditch changing rooms."

Giles chuckled, "I don't envy you, mate. I don't even use them after a match, I think I'd come out dirtier than I went in! Especially after the Slytherin team have been in there…bunch of slubberdegullions."

"There's no way in hell that word means anything but disgusting cretins," Max said, twisting his face at the thought of the team.

"Close," Giles said admirably, "it means a filthy slobbering person."

Teddy shook his head, grabbed a slice of toast and then stood up; his first lesson of the day was starting in less than five minutes, but he was in no hurry to get to it.

"Ready to go? McGonagall will have a fit if we're late."

The other two agreed and followed him out of the hall. Teddy munched wordlessly on his cold toast, and Max and Giles teased him the entire way to the transfiguration classroom on the third floor about his blunders in the subject the previous year. Teddy cringed as they laughed at the tea cup that still 'miaowed' whenever anyone went near it with a wand, and the crow turned goblet that flew around the classroom until McGonagall froze it and it fell to the floor with a clatter and a squawk.

They were the last three to arrive in the classroom and had only just sat down when McGonagall swept into the classroom, her long bottle green robes flowing behind her. As much as he hated the subject, Teddy much admired the woman. She was one of the very few head teachers of Hogwarts that had continued to teach as well as running the school. She had an undeniable passion for her subject area, one which often saw her frustratedly repeating wand movements to Teddy until she was blue in the face.

Unsurprisingly, McGonagall started her first lesson of the year with the fifth years with a long talk about OWLs. Teddy groaned internally when she talked about their final exam. The written side of things he had no issue with, he was very good at written theory in transfiguration and it was the only thing that had got him past the end of year exams each year. The practical side sounded awful, it included large objects such as furniture, and human transfiguration, which despite being a metamorphmagus, Teddy didn't feel confident about at all.

Their task for the first lesson back, according to McGonagall, was starting them off easily. They would be turning vases into baskets. Teddy paid very close attention to Professor McGonagall's demonstration, repeating the incantation over and over in his head until his own vase was placed in front of him. He pulled his wand out of his robes and slowly mimicked the hand movements he had just watched. The vase shot off the table and smashed on the floor in front of his desk. Max snorted loudly, Teddy elbowed him in retaliation, causing Max's wand to slip and his vase to start spitting out purple smoke.

"Ah, Mister Lupin, how I have enjoyed the break from your catastrophes over my summer break," McGonagall said as she crossed the classroom over to his desk. She repaired his vase and then placed it back on the top of the table, and with another flick of her wrist she had stopped the smoke from Max's vase, he moved it slightly over from Teddy's with a nervous glance. She took Teddy's wand from his hand and placed it in the inner pocket of her robes.

"Let's just work on the wrist movement first shall we? That was far too slow. You're over thinking it. Watch." She moved her wrist in an anti-clockwise circle and then gave a sharp jab at the vase, which transfigured into a perfectly formed basket.

She tentatively handed Teddy back his wand and instructed him to try just the wrist movement without the incantation. He did it and she praised him.

"Much better. Now try with the incantation, don't over-think."

He took a calming breath and had a second attempt at the spell. This time, the vase did change, but his basket was still china as opposed to wicker, and had the same floral pattern on it. McGonagall tapped it with her wand and it made a hollow clinking sound.

"Well, it's better than your first attempt. Your problem is entirely a mental block, rather than a physical problem. Your nerves are getting the better of you Teddy. Keep practicing, take a vase with you at the end of the lesson and try on your own somewhere quiet."

"Thanks, Professor," Teddy said apologetically. He hated how much time the woman spent on him in their lessons.

When they left the classroom at the end of the lesson, Teddy bid farewell to Max and Giles, who headed off to their Muggle Studies lesson. Teddy never understood why they had both taken the subject when they'd had Muggle upbringings; Giles said he was interested in how Magic folk perceived Muggles, Max said it was an easy OWL.

Teddy had a free period, which he decided to spend in the Common Room working more on transfiguring his vase. By the time lunchtime came around, his basket still had very faint lilac flowers but no longer felt like china glass. Feeling pleased with himself, Teddy made his way to the Great Hall.

He stopped at the Gryffindor table when he caught sight of Victoire.

"Hey, Vic," he greeted. "How was your first day of class?"

"Great," she beamed. "I had Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Defence, and Transfig. What about you?"

"History of Magic, Charms, Potions. What do you reckon of the new Charms Professor?"

"Oh, he's awful. Took loads of points off us for stupid reasons, _and_ gave us the most awful homework on cheering charms."

"I'd rather that than the detention he gave me," Teddy said with a wink.

"He gave you detention?" Victoire asked incredulously. "What for?"

"I may have abused my metamorpmagus abilities to take the piss out of his ears," Teddy said to his feet.

Victoire snorted loudly and then clapped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh, Lord, Teddy! You definitely need to show me that at some point."

Teddy chuckled. "We'll see. Anyway, I'm heading to the library after dinner tonight if you want some help with that essay?"  
Victoire accepted eagerly and Teddy left with a promise to see her there. They had often spent time doing homework in the library together since she had started when he began second year. Victoire had made the Quidditch team in her first year (the rule of no first years on the team had been abolished when McGonagall became headmistress) and Teddy helped her with the homework assignments he had done the year before so that she could dedicate more time to Quidditch practices.

Teddy had yet another free period after lunch, in which time he, Max and Giles spent pouring over Charms text books for their own homework set by Professor Savage, which he had made sure Teddy was still given. This meant Teddy would be able to quickly write his assignment, then help Victoire with hers and then go to his detention with Hagrid.

He ate his dinner of sausages, mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables in a hurry that evening, and got to the library forty minutes before he was due to meet Victoire. He would have been forty five minutes earlier had it not been for the five minutes of teasing Giles and Max had subjected him to about his and Victoire's friendship.

He was just writing up his conclusion on the methods and uses of concealment charms when Victoire came into the library. Teddy watched as she approached him; she always walked with a spring in her step which sent her long silvery hair swinging behind her. Her piercing blue eyes always had a twinkle in them, and her smile was dazzling. It was no wonder that she gained the attention of every person in a room when she entered it; her presence simply demanded it. Of course, she was completely oblivious to it, and that was why Teddy enjoyed her company so much. She was a happy and calming presence, a caring friend above everything else about her.

She plonked her backpack down on the table and sat in the seat next to Teddy, greeting him with a grin.

"What are you working on?" she asked as she pulled her parchment, quill, and inkpot out of her bag.

"Just finishing off my own charms homework, seems Savage has given everyone an essay to write in their first lesson back." Teddy scribbled the last sentence, gave a sharp jab of his quill for the full stop, and rolled the three sheets of parchment up. He put them in his bag before turning to give Victoire his full attention.

"So, cheering charms?"

"Yep. I have to write the correct incantation and wand movement, the potential dangers and how they can be prevented," she reeled off from the title she had already written and underlined.

"Same as we did last year. You would think that with Professor Savage being new he would think of something a little more creative, wouldn't you?"

Victoire rolled her eyes in agreement. "Yep. So I know the incantation and wrist movement because we did them in class today. It's the dangers bit I'm not sure on."  
Teddy stood from his seat. "There's a book in here that I found when I did this essay last year that had a whole chapter on cheering charm dangers, I'm sure it was down this way."

He led her down one of the aisles on the left side of the library that held all of the books on the many different charms that existed in the wizarding world. It took around five minutes but he finally found the book he was thinking of. It was fairly new compared to some of the books that the Hogwarts library held. It was bottle green leather bound, but only had slight creases in its spine, as opposed to some which were so wrinkled that the title was barely readable.

They returned to their table and as Victoire wrote the opening few paragraphs of her essay, Teddy found the chapter she needed and began scribbling notes down for her on a new piece of parchment. His scrawl was very untidy, but after three years Victoire was used to it and could read it effortlessly.

It took Victoire hardly any time at all to finish her essay with Teddy's help. "Thanks so much for this, Teddy," she gushed as she stuffed her completed homework into her bag.

"It's no problem, really. Is that you finished, then?"

"Yep, thankfully the other Professors were a little kinder on our first day back. Savage even gave the first years homework you know. Louis was complaining to me about it at dinner today," there was an edge to her voice as she spoke.

"Really? How is Louis settling in? I know he was dying to come here when I spoke to him over the summer."

"Oh, god, he's unbearable. I used to look forward to the holidays my first three years at Hogwarts, because I'd be missing him a lot. Now that he's here, he's driving me mad. He always sits near me at dinner, yells at me when he sees me in the corridors, pesters me in the common room. I never realised how annoying he could be."

"Oh, give him a break," Teddy replied. "He's excited. Don't you remember how amazing it was when you first started here? If you'd had an older brother or sister, I bet you would have been the same. I know I would."

"I don't think so. I mean, I knew you before I started here and I wasn't like that with you. And I know that Dominique wasn't like that when she started two years ago. She was off with her own friends from day one. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Lou is happy to be here but sometimes I envy you for being an only child."  
Teddy knew from her grin that she was joking but the joke stuck a chord with him, he reacted more harshly than he had intended.

"You envy _me_? I'd kill to have a big family like you."

"Oh, Teddy," Victoire said quickly. "I was just joking, I swear. Anyway, you _do_ have a big family. You know that."

"Not properly though. I'll never have any brothers or sisters and here you are wishing you don't."

"I never said…that's not what I meant. I just… I'm sorry Teddy, please forget it," she pleaded.

Teddy stood up from his seat and swung his school bag over one shoulder. "Consider it forgotten. I need to go to meet Hagrid," he said cooly.

Victoire looked at him, her eyes cloudy. She nodded her head silently and Teddy left her sitting in the library. He stomped off to Hagrid's and knocked on the door much harder than he had meant to. Teddy heard loud booming barks from Fang and Hagrid yelling at him to move from the door. It swung open and Hagrid looked surprised to see Teddy.

"Blimey, Teddy, did yer knock with yer feet? Didn' think it would be you when yeh nearly knocked a hole in my door."

"Sorry Hagrid," Teddy mumbled.

Hagrid waved him in and set himself busy in the kitchen making a cup of tea for them both. He placed them down on the round table Teddy had seated himself at and then sat down opposite.

"So, detention already then? Is that why yer in a fettle?" Hagrid said with a grin.

"No. I mean, I'm annoyed I got detention but when I found out it was with you I was less bothered. I just had a bit of a…thing with Vic. She made a comment about envying me for being an only child and I snapped at her. Probably shouldn't really but…" he trailed off.

"I get yer point," Hagrid said with a sympathetic nod. "Always wanted a brother or sister meself. It's tough knowin' it's never gon' happen. I'm sure Victoire'll understand why you were mad. She's a nice girl."

Teddy nodded and took a sip of his tea, it calmed him and he realised how mean he had been to Victoire, what was wrong with him snapping at people lately? He drank the rest of his tea in silence, other than to refuse an offer of something to eat from Hagrid, who pushed the subject of Victoire no further. When the clock on the wall above the sofa in Hagrid's cabin struck eight o clock, the pair plus Fang stepped out and into the dark outside. They waited for a moment and could see a lantern swinging in the distance in the direction the castle. There were two shadowy figures walking towards them. It wasn't until they were a lot closer that Teddy recognised one of the figures as the caretaker Argus Filch. The other was a boy Teddy was pretty sure was a third year Ravenclaw, whose name he couldn't remember. He looked positively terrified.

Filch met them with a wicked grin. "Here's your other rule-breaker, Hagrid." He eyed Teddy evilly. "If neither of them come back out with you, I wouldn't mind at all. Makes my job a damned sight easier."

He laughed cruelly and then made his way back to the castle.

"Git," Hagrid mumbled after him. "Right, shall we head off?"

The third year boy looked as though there were a million and one things he would rather do.

"What are we going into the forest for?" Teddy asked as they stepped into the dark forest, realising he hadn't asked yet.

"Professor Plinkton needs some plants for potions. Boomslang and Gurdyroot. They can't be grown in greenhouses, they prefer the dark, see. They're pretty far in, 'bout half an hours walk."  
Teddy was excited; he had never been that far into the forest before. He lit his wand and held it out in front of him and Hagrid, the path ahead of them clear. As they walked further and further into the forest, the trees became thicker and their surroundings harder to see, even with the light from Teddy's wand. Soon the path they had been walking on had disappeared completely and Teddy had to point his wand more towards the ground than outstretched in front of him to look out for potential trip hazards.

Hagrid stopped abruptly. "This is about the right place." How he knew that, Teddy had no idea. He couldn't imagine ever being able to recognise this part of the forest from any of the others they had passed thus far, even if he had explored it a thousand times.

"The Boomslang skin is down that way, about five minutes," he said pointing to the left of where they were standing, "an' the Gurdyroot is another ten minutes up ahead. Be best ter split up. Ted, you take Fang for the Boomslang, you know what it looks like?"

Teddy nodded. He felt no fear at splitting up from Hagrid, he trusted the giant's judgement completely.

"Great. I'll go with Gregory fer the Gurdyroot. Send red sparks up if yer lost or need help an' I'll come fer yer. We'll meet back here in ten."

He pulled out a jar from one of his many coat pockets that contained bright blue flames, and set it on the ground. It cast an extraordinary amount of light for such a small jar; Teddy knew that he would be able to see it through even the thickest patches of trees to find his way back.

He whistled and beckoned for Fang who trotted towards him and they departed from the other half of their group. Teddy kept his wand held out in front of him pointing down just in front of his feet to guide his way.

True to Hagrid's prediction, Teddy came across the Boomslang skin plants after five minutes of walking in a straight line. They were commonly found at the base of trees and could not be pulled by hand, they had to be cut using a wand with a severing spell. He cut as much as he could stuff into his robe pockets, and two handfuls to carry, and hoped it would be enough; Hagrid hadn't given him anything to store it in.

He stuffed his wand back into the inside of his robes and then gathered up the pile he had set to one side to carry. As he picked it up, he felt something small and hard amongst the pile of roots. Setting the pile down again, he fished out the unknown object to inspect it. It felt like a ring, but he could not make it out completely, so he moved from his knees to a cross-legged position on the ground, withdrew his wand once more, and lit it so that he could hold the ring in front of the light to look more closely at it.

It was solid gold, and much heavier than it look. There was a large round black stone set in the gold claw. Teddy squinted at it, he couldn't be sure in the almost blinding wand light but it looked as though there was some sort of marking on the stone, and a crack down the middle of it. He tucked it in the back pocket of his jeans, and then made his way back to the jar of flames that Hagrid had marked as their meeting point.

By the time Teddy's detention was over, and he trudged his way back out of the forest and across the grounds to the castle, he was exhausted. It was with great difficulty that he crawled through the barrel and climbed up the stairs into his dormitory, where Max and Giles' snores filled the room. It was a sign of how tired he was that their snores didn't stop him from falling asleep. The ring still sat in his pocket of his jeans which were strewn carelessly on the floor.


	4. Coccydynia

Still not remembering about the ring he found the night before, Teddy went to breakfast as usual the morning after his detention. The arrival of the post brought Teddy's owl, Helga, with it. There was a letter tied to her leg, and when Teddy removed it from her outstretched leg, he immediately recognised the handwriting as Harry's. He read it as Helga helped herself to his bowl of cereal.

 _Dear Teddy,_

 _I'm glad you've settled back in alright. By 'getting on the wrong side of' your new Charms professor, do you mean he's given you detention already? (Hagrid wrote to me yesterday) Try not to get in too much trouble this year, as you might have gathered already from your Professors, your OWLs are important. Hagrid said that you'll be having a Hogsmeade visit in two weekends time, if you plan on going, let me know and I'll head there and meet you for a bit if you want? Try and stay away from more detentions in the meantime,_

 _Harry.  
_  
Teddy grinned, he could picture Uncle Harry trying and failing to play the role of stern godfather. He stuffed the letter into his backpack with a mental reminder to reply later. Since they started in his third year, Harry had met Teddy on almost all of his weekend visits to Hogwarts. He would always treat Teddy and his friends to a round of butterbeers in the three broomsticks. Max thoroughly looked forward to these meetings, if only for the attention that always surrounded Harry Potter everywhere he went. The wizarding war had been over for fifteen years and people _still_ stared at Harry wherever he went.

"Hogsmeade visit in two weekends," Teddy said, nudging Max who was sat on his left. "Harry wants to meet me."

"Brilliant," Max replied with a grin. "I need to stock up on peacock quills."

He was pretending this was the reason for his happiness at the visit, but Teddy knew the truth.

After his classes that day, Teddy decided to do his homework in the common room. He had a feeling Victoire would be in the library and he didn't want to risk running into her after their fight the day before. The voice in his head was telling him that he had over-reacted and should apologise to her, but her insensitive comments were still stuck in his head. And so, out of sheer stubbornness, Teddy had to try and do his potions homework surrounded by the noise of first years playing exploding snap, and squealing with a mix of delight and fear each time the pack blew up loudly.

He was coming to the end of his essay, which he knew was not to his usual standard because of the many distractions, both in his head and in the room, when there was a thud on the table and Teddy found his homework splattered in mud. Someone had thrown down an extremely filthy pair of Quidditch boots on the desk right next to the stack of parchment that was Teddy's potions homework. He recoiled a little, not wanting to know how they smelled.

"What the-" he began angrily, but then looked up to see the furious looking and mud-covered face of Giles. His Quidditch robes were also covered in muck, there were even flecks of it on his fake glasses. His broom was in his hand, hanging limply by his side.

"He's a piss-taker!" Giles said through gritted teeth. "A dictator! A COCCYDYNIA!"

"Er, who?" Teddy asked. He decided not to ask about Giles' unusual insult when he was in that foul a mood.

"Dickinson!" Giles raged. Ryan Dickinson was the Hufflepuff Quidditch team captain. "Two hours he's had us flying around in the pissing down rain, then decided he wanted us to run laps. Laps, Ted. One of the things I love the most about Quidditch is that it's a sport I can do sitting on my arse. All through muggle primary school I suffered being uncoordinated at standing-up sports. I did my share of running around then, and falling down with it! Can you please explain to me why running around on the wettest, foulest, filthiest Quidditch pitch known to man is going to make me any better at catching the snitch? Because I sure as hell don't know."

"I don't know either. I do know that I've spent the last hour and a half on this essay for Pinkton though." He picked it up gingerly between his thumb and index finger, holding it above the desk so that some of the wet mud slid off it and dripped onto the table.

"Shit, sorry, Ted," Giles mumbled. "Let me get my wand and fix it for you."

"No, it's fine, honestly. The writing is so poor, the mud has made a drastic improvement on it. I was going to start it again anyway." This was a lie but now that it was covered in mud, it gave Teddy the push he needed to admit to himself there was no way he could hand it in.

"Dinner?" he suggested to Giles, hoping his friends bad mood was mostly down to hunger. A smile tugged at the corner of Giles' mud splashed mouth, indicating Teddy was right.

"Give me ten minutes to have a shower and get changed?" he replied.

"Yep. Just don't get mud all over my bed covers like you did the last time please." He smiled as he said it to let Giles know he was joking. "Oh, can you wake Max up from his nap, too? He'll be pissed if we let him miss dinner."

Giles nodded and disappeared up the stairs. He returned shortly after, considerably cleaner, laughing, and accompanied by Max.

"Feeling better?" Teddy asked as they made their way across the circular room to the tunnel.

"Much. Especially after Max got a fright when I woke him up. You should have seen him, got all tangled in his blanket and fell out of bed."

Max shot him an angry look but soon cracked a smile when Giles laughed so much he needed to wipe the tears from his eyes.

Teddy was pleased to see his favourite dish was on offer at dinner that night; roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, vegetables, and gravy. He had just started piling his plate with beef and mashed potatoes when he felt a tap on his shoulder. When he spun around in his seat, he was surprised to see Victoire standing there.

"Hi, Teddy," she spoke in a small voice and looked at the floor rather than at him.

"Hi Vic…" he replied.

"I just wanted to say sorry again for yesterday. Louis was driving me mad and I was stressing about the homework, and I know it's no excuse but I just spoke without thinking."

She looked up at him now and he could see real guilt in her grey eyes. All of the anger he felt towards her dissolved. "It's fine," he said sincerely. "Let's just forget about it."

She visibly relaxed, and her face split into a huge grin. "Thanks, Ted. Anyway, I'll let you have your dinner, I know it's your favourite."

She spun on her heel and headed to her own table, her silvery hair shining bright despite the dull light that the torches and candles lit the room with.

"She knows your favourite…" Max mumbled quietly in a sing song voice.

"Shut up," Teddy quipped back.

He carried on loading his plate with vegetables and covered it all in lashings of gravy. Just as he picked up his knife and fork and readied himself to dig into the plate of food, there was a loud BANG! The dish in front of him had exploded, and he found himself covered from his head down to his lap with his dinner. Before he had time to process what had happened, another sound made him jump; someone behind him was roaring with laughter.

Freddie Weasley was doubled over behind Teddy, tears rolling down his face. There were flecks of gravy on his dark-skinned face, and a bit of carrot blending in with his red hair, but he didn't appear to have noticed.

"Your…face…so…funny…." he gasped between laughs.

"What the _hell_ , Freddie?!" Teddy yelled.

"Revenge…sweet. Quaffle…gnome…" were the only words he managed to get out.

Of course, they made perfect sense to Teddy. Over the summer, Molly Weasley had hosted one of her many gatherings where she made entirely too much food even for her ever expanding family. Teddy loved going to them, and being surrounded by the Potters and Weasleys, who were the closest thing to family he had beyond his Grandma Tonks.

Fred Weasley, even at the age of twelve, had huge ambitions to be even more of a joker than his father was, and his uncle (and namesake) had been. He had committed a rather mean prank on his cousin, Victoire, which had resulted in her spending the evening with two large purple horns sticking out of her forehead, until finally the formidable Molly Weasley had forced him to give up the cure for them.

Teddy had decided to take revenge the following day, on Victoire's behalf. He was playing Quidditch with some of the Weasley kids, and, unbeknownst to Freddie, had transfigured a garden gnome into the quaffle they soon began to pass between them. When Freddie made a particularly brilliant save, and was kissing the quaffle in celebration, Teddy quickly pulled out his wand and cast the charm to reverse to transfiguration.

Freddie was furious to find himself kissing an extremely ugly, and equally angry gnome, and was caught on the receiving end of a bite on the nose, which immediately started to bleed. Teddy laughed so hard that he had to quickly land his broom before he fell off it.

Freddie finally calmed down from his laughing fit in the middle of the Great Hall for long enough to explain to Teddy how he had exploded his dinner.

"I've been carrying these around in my pocket for weeks," he said as he pulled out a handful of small purpleish-blue marbles.

"They're mini detonators. You tap them with your wand, plant them wherever you want, and then when you flick your wand in their direction, they explode! Dad's just finished perfecting them, he's going to be selling them in the shop from next week. I managed to nick some just before we came back here at the start of term. Put one in your dinner when you were talking to Vic."

He looked extremely pleased with himself, and even Teddy had to admit secretly that he was impressed. That didn't stop him from being covered in his favourite dinner, though. He promised Fred that he would get revenge, and glared as he took a seat at the Gryffindor table and immediately began laughing as he launched into a recount of his prank to his friends.

Teddy tried to vanish the food from his clothes with his wand, but there were still very clear gravy stains all over his trousers.

"Sod it, I'm going to have to get changed," he announced to Max and Giles before leaving the table and making his way back to the common room.

When he got back to his dormitory, he removed his dinner-covered uniform, and threw it into the washing basket that would soon be dealt with by the school elves. He pulled on a pair of jeans and a jumper that were lying on the floor at the foot of his bed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and was about to leave the room with hopes that the dinner would not yet have been cleared and replaced by desert, when something made him stop.

The ring he had found in the forest was still in his pocket. He had completely forgotten about it.

He sat down on the edge of his bed, and looked at the ring closely now that the lighting was better. He had been right about the engraving, there was definitely something there, something curly, was it a letter, a symbol? It was hard to tell because of the large crack that ran right down the middle of it. It looked positively ancient, no-one in this day and age would be seen wearing it, that he was certain of. He turned it over to look at the gold band, there was nothing out of the ordinary there; nothing that set it aside from any other ring. It was the stone that interested Teddy the most. It was black but not just black. There was something more to the unusual stone, it looked as though there was something inside it; there was movement in there. Or was it the just the flickering light in the dormitory? He turned it over again to see if he could get a better view of the inside from the underneath, but he could only see a tiny part of the black stone between the gold claws that grasped it.

He turned it over once more and there was a soft whooshing of air in the room that had seemed to come from the ring itself, it rumpled his hair (red that day). He inspected the ring closer, and even tried shaking it a little to see if he could recreate the gust of wind and prove that it had come from the ring. Nothing happened. But if it wasn't the ring (and he was sure it had been) then what had caused it? He looked up from the ring for the first time and yelped. He was not alone in the room.

Two figures stood in front of him, a man and a woman, and Teddy knew exactly who they were. The man had thinning light brown hair that was flecked with grey, his hazel eyes were surrounded by lined skin, his slightly wrinkled face managed to look youthful due to the beaming smile. The woman was visibly younger than her companion, she had bubblegum pink hair that she wore in a pixie cut, her bright blue eyes were sparkling, and she too was smiling widely. Teddy Lupin was looking at his mum and dad in the flesh for the first time.


End file.
